Juhi Chawla on a yoga swing in Maldives

This Diwali, Juhi Chawla took off for an impromptu holiday to Maldives with husband Jay Mehta. With both their children, daughter Jhanvi and son Arjun, schooling in UK, the couple took off to this tourist paradise. “Juhi’s been enjoying the beaches and the lovely weather, as also yoga,” says a source close to the actress.

Christopher Harrison, a former world-class gymnast, came to India to study yoga in the 1990s. He was so impressed with the age-old practice that he combined his knowledge of yoga with aerial acrobatics to create a new routine called ‘anti-gravity’ using a silk hammock, which has the actress hooked. “I enrolled for a session of anti-gravity yoga at our hotel which started with our tutor reassuring us that the hammock could carry a weight of up to 500 kg. ‘A baby elephant can swing on this, so don’t worry about falling. Go ahead, trust it, have fun,’ Dr Jitendra Digraje, an acupuncturist, naturopath and yoga expert from Bangalore, assured us,” Juhi told Mirror from Maldives.

She admits that she had watched a class in progress with the participant’s hanging upside down in all kinds of impossible poses and stretches. She was anxious when she started the routine but her instructor took them step by step through the moves. “And before long we were laughing with our heads a few inches from the floor and legs up in the air,” she says, pointing out that the exercises seemed complicated and only for flexible bodies but are actually safe and easy to master for anybody between the ages of six and 60, skinny or overweight. “They are particularly useful for those who spend hours in the office, bent over files and computers. Anti-gravity yoga decompresses the spine and releases all kinds of stress. At the end of the session I felt happy, light as a feather and two inches taller.”

The actress is also experimenting with aqua yoga. This includes exercises in the pool, coupled with standing aasanas. “It’s a great work-out which seems half the effort in water but our tutor assured us the effect is double that of similar exercises in the gym. We ended up working on and strengthening the core, limbs and body balance. It’s great for the young and the old and everyone in between,” she signs off with a laugh.